Squeezing the Juice Out of the Semester

Oh No You Don’t Caregiving When You’re Not Close By

Squeezing the Juice Out of the Semester

Another day, another castle

Hello. I finished my book.

At least I finished this draft; it now goes to my editor at Running Press who will turn it into something coherent, but my 2.5 months of early morning writing sessions and late-night playlist futzing have come to a temporary halt. Which means I can pivot back to the blog and let you in on the thing that has given me total joy whenever I come up for air away from the book and the midterm election cycle: my eldest daughter’s semester abroad experience.

If you’ve been playing along at home for awhile you may recall that our kid a.) chose her college because it sent such a high percentage of engineering students abroad and b.) had her dreams of study abroad dashed repeatedly last winter. #NeverthelessShePersisted and Baby Girl has been in Dublin, Ireland since the end of August. What has she been doing there?

Living her best life. Living my best life. Living your best life. And for good measure, living the best life of that dude over there in the corner.

Throughout the struggle it took to find a program that would accommodate the academic requirements she needed to fulfill, we kept saying to her, “it will pay off in a measure commensurate with the effort you’ve put into it.” Uh, check that box.

In our weekly Skype call with her, we try to keep her travel straight. “So is it this weekend or next weekend you are going to France?” “Next weekend – this weekend is Belfast, and then did I tell you I booked a trip to Edinburgh? It was only £18 round-trip, I mean, how could I not?”

We try to recall who she’s travelling with. “Is it Caitlin or Emma?” “Neither, it’s Izzy who I met here in Ireland.”

We wonder where she’s staying. “This week it’s with Aunt Suzy’s friend in Paris and then next week it’s with your high school friend’s ex-boyfriend and his family and the week after that it’s my friend from college.”

She has discovered new passions. As in, a recent Instagram caption on a picture of her peeking out with a big smile from a Roman ruin in the north of England was, “I’m like obsessed with the romans right now…like don’t talk to me unless you want to talk roman settlements.” Also, Guinness. As this legal-in-Ireland kid prefaced a story to me recently, “We were at lunch and I ordered a Guinness because…well…I mean…I live in Ireland now.”

Finally last week my husband had to ask the question. “Do you think you’ll be passing your classes this semester?” Our daughter gave a hearty laugh. “I hope so?” she said, before moving on to a story about visiting another castle. Hey, man, her college only accepts the credits, not the grades, for study abroad classes. Working to get an A just isn’t a good allocation of resources when you can get to Edinburgh for £18 and a couple of missed labs.

As someone who spent a formative junior semester abroad in Vienna learning everything there was to know about hostel life, buying Gösser Bier for the equivalent of $0.50 from school vending machines, and how to see the Lipizzaner stallions perform on the cheap (hint: go to their rehearsals. Just as impressive and a fraction of the cost) she doesn’t need to convince me that she’s spending her time right. Added bonus: When we go visit her for Christmas, we will have the best-trained Dublin tour guide a person could hope for.

But is it too much to hope she won’t follow in her mother’s footsteps and move back to Europe when she graduates?

This had to be the video, because a.) she went to Amsterdam two weeks ago to see a George Ezra concert and b.) she’s spending Thanksgiving in Budapest. As you do. When you have one semester abroad and have to make it count.

***Thanks to everyone who has checked in on the California fire situation – here in the Bay Area we are about 160 miles from the devastation of the Camp Fire but the air quality is horrible and has been for a week…which makes me feel even worse for people living closer to the fire area. If you feel moved to help support the victims of these New Abnormal California fires, here are three organizations to which I’ve been directing people:Wildfire Relief Fund California Fire Foundation which helps firefighters and their families UCDavis Veterinary Catastrophic Need Fund to help animal impacted by the fireThank you for caring about the Golden State***And finally, I am doing a reading this Friday, Nov 16 at 7 pm at the Octopus Literary Salon for THERE, a night of music and literature. Airing a whole chapter from the book if you want a sneak…peek? Listen?

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